Influence of Geographical Origin and Ethnicity on Mortality in Patients on Antiretroviral Therapy in Canada, Europe, and the United States

• Published in: Clinical Infectious Diseases
• Main Authors: del Amo, J., Jarrin, I., May, M., Dabis, F., Crane, H., Podzamczer, D., Sterling, T. R., Abgrall, S., Lampe, F., Justice, A., Castagna, A., Boesecke, C., Staehelin, Cornelia Johanna, De Wolf, F., Guest, J., Mugavero, M. J., Khaykin, P., Samji, H., Ingle, S., Sterne, J. A. C., Gill, M. J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2013
• Subjects: 610 Medicine & health; Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: https://boris.unibe.ch/46996/1/1800.full.pdf; https://boris.unibe.ch/46996/

Our objective was to assess differences in all-cause mortality, as well as AIDS and non-AIDS death rates, among patients started on antiretroviral therapy (ART) according to their geographical origin and ethnicity/race in Europe, Canada, and the United States. METHODS: This was a collaboration of 19 cohort studies of human immunodeficiency virus-positive subjects who have initiated ART (ART Cohort Collaboration) between 1998 and 2009. Adjusted mortality hazard ratios (AHRs) were estimated using Cox regression. A competing risk framework was used to estimate adjusted subdistribution hazard ratios for AIDS and non-AIDS mortality. RESULTS: Of 46 648 European patients, 16.3% were from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 5.1% Caribbean and Latin America, 1.6% North Africa and Middle East, and 1.7% Asia/West; of 1371 patients from Canada, 14.9% were First Nations and 22.4% migrants, and of 7742 patients from North America, 55.5% were African American and 6.6% Hispanic. Migrants from SSA (AHR, 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], .68-.92) and Asia/West (AHR, 0.62; 95% CI, .41-.92) had lower mortality than Europeans; these differences appeared mainly attributable to lower non-AIDS mortality. Compared with white Canadians, mortality in Canadian First Nations people (AHR, 1.48; 95% CI, .96-2.29) was higher, both for AIDS and non-AIDS mortality rates. Among US patients, when compared with whites, African Americans had higher AIDS and non-AIDS mortality, and hazard ratios for all-cause mortality increased with time on ART. CONCLUSIONS: The lower mortality observed in migrants suggests "healthy migrant" effects, whereas the higher mortality in First Nations people and African Americans in North America suggests social inequality gaps. KEYWORDS: HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy, ethnic minorities, migrants Comment in Addressing disparities in HIV mortality: antiretroviral therapy is necessary but not sufficient. [Clin Infect Dis. 2013]